"Acquainted With the Night" Sample Essays

Crystal Milligan

           In Robert Frost’s, “Acquainted with the Night,” the narrator speaks of the night as a metaphor for his life. Speaking of the night as it was his life, he brings out his loneliness as well as the sadness that he has lived through.

            The only way to be acquainted with an individual would be to spend a certain amount of time with that individual. The speaker shows how long his loneliness with the night has gone on through the parallelism shown here:

            I have been one acquainted with the night

            I have walked out in the rain—and back in rain

            I have out walked the furthest city lane

            I have looked down the saddest city lane

            I have passed by the watch man on his beat.

                                                                        (1-5)

            The narrator’s acquaintance with the night could only mean that the speaker is very old and has lived a long yet saddened life. Thus, night represents his life nearing death as he has become acquainted with it. The “watch man” for instance would be God, whom he has come to know and “passed by” (5). The “cry” that is heard and that of others who are going through the same sadness as the speaker (8). Yet he explains the cry was:

            Not to call me back or say good-by;

            And further still at an unearthly height

            One luminary clock against the sky.     (10-12)

Thus, he explains that no one is calling him back or saying good-by as he leaves to an “unearthly height” along with the “luminary clock” or the noon (11-12). Knowing that at time of death it is never the “wrong nor right” time for some one to die, that is just what happens and how life goes (12).

Through Robert Frost’s poem, “Acquainted with the Night,” we can learn much about one's life. How some are “unwilling to explain” their actions that has caused them so much pain (6). The speaker is on of those going from one rain storm to another; living is life as it is in the darkness of the night.